Antibiotics

News about Antibiotics, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 24, 2015

Op-Ed article by oncologist Ezekiel J Emanuel calls for new approach to developing antibiotics in light of proliferation of antibiotic-immune strains of bacteria; suggests awarding large monetary prizes to companies that develop new classes of Food and Drug Administration-approved antibiotics as one way to spur pharmaceutical companies to invest in their development. MORE

Jan. 8, 2015

Researchers in journal Nature report that method of extracting drugs from bacteria living in dirt has created strong new antibiotic; new drug teixobactin easily cures infections with no side effects and has potential to enable many natural compounds to battle infections and cancer; human testing is about two years away. MORE

Dec. 23, 2014

Science Q&A elucidates reason it is necessary to take all antibiotics prescribed by doctor rather than stopping when symptoms are gone. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Number of infants born in India with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections continues to rise at alarming rates; more than 58,000 such infant deaths occurred in 2013 alone; many researchers say evidence is overwhelming that significant share of bacteria present in India are immune to nearly all antibiotics, expressing worry that so-called superbugs could have global implications. MORE

Oct. 27, 2014

The phenomenon of “decision fatigue” has been found in judges, who are more likely to deny parole at the end of the day than at the beginning. Now researchers have found a parallel effect in physicians. MORE

Oct. 3, 2014

Food and Drug Administration, in annual report, says amount of medically important antibiotics sold for use in animals raised for meat grew by 16 percent from 2009 to 2012, a pattern it says is troubling. MORE

Sep. 30, 2014

Editorial welcomes measures introduced by Obama administration that would help reduce overuse of antibiotics in both humans and livestock, citing increasing number of deaths and costly illnesses from antibiotic-resistant germs; warns that up to half of all antibiotics prescribed for Americans are not needed or are improperly prescribed. MORE

Sep. 19, 2014

Obama administration announces measures to tackle growing threat of antibiotic resistance; outlines national strategy that includes incentives for development of new drugs, tighter stewardship of existing ones, and improvements in tracking use of antibiotics and microbes that are resistant to them. MORE

Sep. 4, 2014

Perdue says it will no longer use antibiotics in its hatcheries, latest step company has taken to address concerns about how animal husbandry practices have contributed to antibiotic resistance. MORE

Aug. 16, 2014

Letter from New York Rep Louise Slaughter responds to July 31 Ruth Reichl Op-Ed and August 6 letters about agriculture's contribution to antibiotic-resistance crisis. MORE

Jul. 31, 2014

Op-Ed article by food writer Ruth Reichl decries federal appeals court ruling allowing Food and Drug Administration to leave antibiotic used in animal feed on market even if it is dangerous to humans; warns that practice breeds antibiotic-resistant bacteria and notes that some mainstream food suppliers have already moved away from such antibiotics, urging entire industry to join them. MORE

Jul. 23, 2014

Eduardo Porter Economic Scene column; pharmaceutical industry seems uninterested in developing drugs to combat potential disaster, even as World Health Organization warns of possible 'post-antibiotic era' and antibiotic-resistant infections sicken more than two million Americans each year; economics of drug development seem counter to securing highest levels of public health. MORE

Jun. 21, 2014

Food and Drug Administration approves new antibiotic from Cubist Pharmaceuticals to treat common skin infections often acquired in hospitals. MORE

Jun. 5, 2014

Duke University researchers, in study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, say single infusion of antibiotic oritavancin can clear serious bacterial skin infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, just as effectively as 10-day regimen now used to treat patients. MORE

May. 16, 2014

Donald G. McNeil Jr. responds to reader questions about new recommendations to prevent H.I.V. infection with daily doses of the drug Truvada. MORE

May. 11, 2014

Editorial warns of grave threat presented by antibiotic-resistant germs around world, citing landmark survey by the World Health Organization; holds that most urgent need is to curb overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, adding that pharmaceutical industry must be encouraged to develop new drugs to supplement those that are losing their effectiveness. MORE

Mar. 29, 2014

Editorial applauds efforts by Food and Drug Administration to get voluntary cooperation of drug companies to curb overuse of antibiotics in animal feed; holds endeavor is off to good start, with 25 of 26 manufacturers agreeing to modify their labels to block such usage; urges continued oversight by FDA to monitor companies' compliance and resulting declines in antibiotic use and resistance. MORE

Mar. 27, 2014

Food and Drug Administration announces that nearly all drug companies that make antibiotics for use in animal feed have agreed to its proposal to phase out the use of drugs that make animals grow faster; 25 of 26 such companies will remove words 'growth-promotion' from their labels. MORE

Mar. 9, 2014

Op-Ed article by Pagan Kennedy traces link between widespread use of antibiotics in America and increase in obesity rates; notes that scientists have found evidence that suggests that antibiotic usage may alter the humans' microbiomes, which in turn could be related to heavier population and rise in obesity. MORE

Feb. 12, 2014

Restaurant chain Chick-fil-A announces that within five years it will no longer sell products containing meat from chickens raised with antibiotics; company also says that consumer demand prompted the change, and that it did not know whether antibiotic-free chicken will cost consumers more. MORE

Jan. 28, 2014

Food and Drug Administration analysis of 30 antibiotics used in animal feed finds that majority of them are likely contributing to bacterial infections that are resistant to treatment in people. MORE

Dec. 22, 2013

Editorial praises Food and Drug Administration for finally asking drug companies to remove statements indicating that antibiotics can be used to promote growth in livestock; warns that the FDA's new policy does not go far enough, and calls on the agency to limit antibiotic use to treating sick animals or in special circumstances where a healthy animal is likely to become sick. MORE

Dec. 12, 2013

Food and Drug Administration establishes major new policy to phase out the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in cows, pigs and chickens raised for meat; experts say practice has endangered human health by fueling the growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance; change will effectively make it illegal for farmers and ranchers to use antibiotics to make animals grow bigger. MORE

Sep. 24, 2013

Sep. 18, 2013

Editorial highlights warning issued by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the 'potentially catastrophic consequences' unless prompt action is taken to address antibiotic-resistant bacteria; notes that CDC report blames overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture. MORE

Sep. 17, 2013

Study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that at least two million Americans fall ill from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year and that at least 23,000 die from those infections, putting a hard number on a growing public health threat. MORE

Sep. 9, 2013

Though one in 10 Americans avoids the antibiotic, a majority of them have no serious allergy and doctors lack the time to dispel their misunderstanding. MORE

Aug. 20, 2013

Study in journal Lancet Infectious Disease shows that daily dose of isoniazid, a generic antibiotic, can often fend off lethal bouts of tuberculosis in people with HIV. MORE

Jul. 30, 2013

Scientific community broadly agrees that overuse of antibiotics is causing growing resistance to drugs, and many scientists say their heavy use on animals on industrial farms is major culprit; Prof Lance Price, microbiologist, is sequencing DNA of bacteria found in grocery meat in Arizona as well as that in surrounding human population in effort to quantify how extensively drug-resistant bugs in animals are infecting people. MORE

Jun. 3, 2013

Government officials, drug companies and medical experts are pushing to speed up approval of new antibiotics due to threat of outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant superbugs; critics of speeding up approval process warn of safety concerns. MORE

Apr. 21, 2013

Maggie Koerth-Baker Eureka column reflects that as antibiotic resistance spreads, scientists are looking to the past for new ways to fight bacteria. MORE

Mar. 28, 2013

Op-Ed article by David A Kessler, commissioner of Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, warns that FDA knows little about antibiotics that are being fed to livestock; calls on lawmakers to pass measure that will require food producers to disclose how often they feed antibiotics to animals at low levels. MORE

Mar. 13, 2013

Food and Drug Administration toughens its warning about potential risks of popular antibiotic Azithromycin, saying it can cause changes in heart's electrical activity that may lead to fatal irregular heart rhythm in some patients. MORE

Mar. 6, 2013

Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that deadly infections with bacteria that resist even the strongest antibiotics are on the rise in United States hospitals, with only a limited window of opportunity to halt their spread into community at large. MORE

Mar. 1, 2013

Editorial cites study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finding that unchecked antibiotic use in Chinese livestock farming has led to antibiotic-resistant genes in bacteria; warns using antibiotics to promote growth, rather than in treating sickness, poses a worldwide human health risk. MORE

Jan. 31, 2013

Studies appearing in New England Journal of Medicine and journal Science offer first major new scientific findings in a decade about causes and treatments of severe malnutrition in children, which affects 20 million worldwide and contributes to more than one million deaths annually; findings reveal that merely giving children an inexpensive antibiotic along with therapeutic food could save tens of thousands of lives a year. MORE

Dec. 26, 2012

Chicken farms like Bell & Evans in Pennsylvania are using oregano-based products as substitutes for antibiotics, but research on their effectiveness is scant and many health care experts remain skeptical; sales in United States of organic meat, poultry and fish were small part of food market in 2011, totaling $538 million. MORE

Dec. 10, 2012

Op-Ed article by medical expert Carl F Nathan calls for a more open and cooperative approach to developing drugs to fight growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. MORE

Sep. 17, 2012

Letter from Ingrid E Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, comments on the Sept 9 Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column on an organic dairy farm's success. MORE

Sep. 9, 2012

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column highlights the success one of his high school friends has had with his dairy farm since he switched to organic production and began withholding antibiotics from his cows; contends that the dairy farm shows that food need not come at the cost of animal or human health and welfare. MORE

Sep. 4, 2012

Scientists say there is a troubling dearth of hard data on the relationship between routine antibiotic used in animals and antibiotic-resistant infections, despite consumer advocates' contentions that there is overwhelming epidemiological evidence linking the two; eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States are consumed by farm animals, yet producers of meat and poultry are not required to report how they use the drugs. MORE

Sep. 4, 2012

Study in journal The Lancet again confirms that hard-to-cure drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing threat. MORE

Aug. 29, 2012

Editorial cites alarming episode of deadly, drug-resistant form of pneumonia bacteria that struck the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md, in 2011 that infected 17 patients and killed 6; contends incident shows the importance of slowing the development of resistant strains by reducing rampant overuse of antibiotics, as well as the need for new, more effective antibiotics. MORE

Aug. 20, 2012

Editorial asserts timetable set by federal judge for the Food and Drug Administration to follow in withdrawing the widespread use of antibiotics in farm animals is too long; expresses hope that timetable will be shortened if FDA attempts to appeal judge's decision. MORE

Jun. 19, 2012

Emerging doctrine known as 'medical ecology' seeks to promote a more subtle approach to managing the body's trillions of microbes, eschewing the indiscriminate use of antibiotics; proponents received a major boost from the National Human Genome Research Institute's Human Microbiome Project, which sequenced genetic material of bacteria recovered from human beings, revealing some of the ways in which these invisible residents shape human life. MORE

Jun. 12, 2012

Lab notebooks uncovered at Rutgers University may help settle a 70-year argument over the Nobel-winning discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic to cure tuberculosis; streptomycin was first isolated in 1943 by graduate student Albert Schatz, who later fought a prolonged legal battle with his supervising professor, Selman A Waksman, who received the Nobel prize for the discovery. MORE

Jun. 5, 2012

Study in journal The Lancet finds that giving zinc to newborns being treated with antibiotics for serious infections appears to save lives; rate of infants treated with zinc had a treatment failure rate that was 40 percent below that of the placebo group. MORE

May. 17, 2012

Study published in The New England Journal of Medicine finds the widely used antibiotic azithromycin may increase the likelihood of sudden death in adults, especially those who have heart disease or are at high risk for it; increased odds of death are small, but significant enough that authors of study say doctors should consider prescribing a different drug for high-risk patients who need antibiotics. MORE

Apr. 16, 2012

Editorial observes that the Food and Drug Administration is set to issue new regulatory guidelines for the use of antibiotics in food animals, and that a federal court has banned the use of some antibiotics in livestock; expresses hope that the two developments will curb the widespread use of antibiotics to spur growth in livestock, which has a high cost for human health in the form of creating drug-resistant bacteria. MORE

Apr. 12, 2012

Food and Drug Administration announces new rule that will require farmers and ranchers to obtain a prescription from a veterinarian before using antibiotics in farm animals; rule caps a 35-year effort to get farmers to voluntarily stop overusing antibiotics, which results in tens of thousands of human deaths each year because of drug-resistant strains of disease. MORE